NPP NEC to meet next week over 2016 campaign - Kwabena Agyepong

In an interview with the New Statesman, he cleared the air on allegations that the National Chairman was refusing to call a NEC meeting, which is expected to set the stage for preparations towards the 2016 general elections, after the rounds of parliamentary primaries.

“No one has refused to call a NEC meeting. The last attempt to call a NEC meeting could not come on because the Regional Chairmen said they were holding their Regional Executive Committee meetings,” he explained.

All is now set, he said, for the Steering Committee to meet early next week to set the agenda for the meetings of the higher bodies later in the week.

Although talks are still ongoing, a source close to the Flagbearer said, “the overwhelming sentiment among the leadership is that it is time to put our differences behind us, learn to get along and focus on what matters: how to organize the party to win next year’s general elections and get Ghana working again.

That is all that matters.” The NPP is the first political party in the country that has managed to go through its entire rounds of internal contests towards the next general elections, including the selection of its presidential and parliamentary candidates. Apart from about 13 constituencies, plus another two disputed polls, the party has chosen its parliamentary candidates for all constituencies nationwide.

With the return of the NPP 2016 Presidential Candidate, Nana Akufo-Addo, in the country, and after a series of high-powered closed-door meetings to resolve issues and differences in the party, the front is being sturdily built for the 2016 NPP campaign team to be put in place and for the party to focus fully on 2016.

Next week’s NEC meeting is likely to be followed by a National Council meeting the same day. The Presidential Candidate may then take the opportunity to inform the National Council of his campaign team. The convention has always been that a Presidential Candidate will first inform the National Council of the team and strategy he has in place for the campaign before announcing the team to the general public.

This, therefore, makes it imperative that a National Council meeting is held to pave the way for the campaign team and structure to be put in place.

Insiders hint of a clear plan of a decentralized campaign structure, which empowers the party in the regions and the constituencies to know, without any ambiguity, that they have the “greater control” of their own respective campaigns than the national campaign centre.

According to sources at both the NPP headquarters and the Flagbearer’s Office, next week’s planned meetings are expected to agree on an effective roadmap of what one insider described as a structure of “accountable, transparent inclusiveness” of a party “determined to instill greater discipline, trust, commitment and focus in the way it runs its affairs.”

Members of the Council of Elders, in particular, have been very busy meeting various groups and personnel of the party in the last couple of weeks to build mutual trust and understanding amongst them. “We are very encouraged about the progress being made,” a member of the Council of Elders told this paper.

There is an all-round expectation that the two meetings will conclude with an unalloyed commitment from all to fulfill the Flagbearer’s desire to get the entire leadership of the party united behind the 2016 Agenda for Change. “The time has come to kill the ghost of suspicion that has haunted the NPP for some time now. The party has what it takes to overcome its current challenges and it will prove it to the relief of millions of Ghanaians.

It needs to do so for the sake of our country. It needs to do so for the future of our country. And, it needs to do so, at least, to ensure that the death of Chairman Mahama Adams was not in vain.”

This was how Gabby Asare Otchere-Darko, the founder of the Danquah Institute, put it when he was contacted for his opinion. The NPP Upper East Regional Chairman, Alhaji Adams, was killed in an acid attack last May.

Two suspects are in court over his murder.

Mr Otchere-Darko, a very good friend of the late Chairman, added, “I am confident that the NPP will end this month by gathering the strength and recognition of its ultimate purpose to leave all its troubles behind, sailing together with one compass to one destination: which is securing power in 2016.”

He recalled the trials and tribulations that the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition had gone through since it was formed under the UGCC in August 1947, saying, “our sense of purpose and our appreciation of our positive role and patriotic duty to the development of our nation are far more important than any other consideration and this is what gave me the hope always that the party had what it took to overcome the recent challenges.”

He continued, “This is a political tradition that has survived the worst form of persecution and tribulations since Independence, without sacrificing the principles for which it stands.

The people who lead the NPP know that an entire nation is looking up to them and I know the NPP has no intention to fail the people of this country; not at this juncture. It has too much to offer to be diverted by issues that it has the inherent capacity to resolve and to resolve now.”

There is a new buzz in the main opposition party since Nana Akufo-Addo returned from a three-week visit in the UK last Friday and expectations of the party resolving all its leadership problems are very high. Nana Akufo-Addo received the highest endorsement of a presidential candidate last October, when 94.35% out of 134,519 delegates voted for him in a five-man race.

Thus, the issue of internal feud has been felt more among the very few at the top, and in the mass media, with the grassroots across the regions solid in their unity.

That is why observers believe that any resolution at the NEC and National Council levels is guaranteed to receive unanimous endorsement of party rank and file and an anxious general public, eager to feel the full force of an alternative government in the NPP.

The last time the party held a NEC meeting was March 23, 2015, with the National Council meeting the same day to set the dates for the parliamentary primaries.

According to Article 9 of the NPP Constitution, the National Council has the constitutional power to “direct the affairs of the Party in between meetings of the National Delegates Conference, and , for this purpose , may give such directives to the National Chairperson as may be considered necessary for the well-being of the Party.”

The National Council, also according to the constitution, “shall meet at least twice a year, provided that no more that seven (7) months shall elapse between the first and second meetings.”

The NPP constitution further directs, “Subject to such directives as the National Council may issue, the National Executive Committee shall be responsible for directing and overseeing the operations and activities of the Party.”

Again, “The National Executive Committee shall meet at least once in every three (3) months.”